4 investment opportunities in Africa

August 24, 2018 8:54 am

This article will be looking at 4 key investment opportunities in African sectors namely; agriculture, power, infrastructure, and retail, in the untapped investment opportunities they present in Africa.

Agriculture

60% of the world’s uncultivated land is in Africa, while the continent is only responsible for 10% of the world’s agricultural produce. Agriculture as an untapped investment opportunity is set to be a major growth driver over the next few years, surpassing mining and metals. Southeast Asia has become competitive and expensive for doing agribusiness; it’s time for Africa to take advantage of this opportunity.

The majority of Uganda’s agricultural products such as tobacco, fish, and coffee are exported in their raw form. Also exploring the untapped agriculture sector is Ethiopia which is known to have some of the most arable land in the world. Ethiopia spends more than 25% of its budget on agriculture. As the backbone of Ethiopia’s economy, the sector represents around 50% of GDP and over 85% of export revenues and employment opportunities.

The production of sugar has rendered many African countries economic growth. Sudan is currently reported the biggest sugar producer in Africa, being 25th in the world, followed by Ethiopia (27th), Kenya (33rd) Uganda (43rd) and Tanzania (45th).

Power

Many African nations struggle with high costs, low capacity and constant power outages. According to RMB 2015/2016 report, over 55% of Nigerians do not have access to grid electricity, using costly back-up generators. Roughly 80% of the East Africa region is without electricity. As of 2013, after its establishment of the Rural Electrification Authority in 2006, 90% of Kenya’s public facilities have electricity, however, household access is at a low.

Almost 90% of Liberia’s population has no access to reliable electricity. However, this represents an opportunity for Liberia’s advancement in hydro-electricity. Liberia has an advantage of six major rivers; Saint John, Saint Paul, Mano, Lofa, Cavalla and Cestos River. The rivers drain over 60% of the country’s water presenting an opportunity for investing in hydro-electricity.

Beyond this, there is a need for a diversification in investments of power sources, as the overreliance on hydro energy draws vulnerabilities in their economies and result in hydrological conditions such as the droughts.

Although the level of investment funding required to adequately electrify the continent outweighs the capacity of government initiatives, the economic cost to remain with inadequate structures retards economic growth and its objectives.

Infrastructure

Mauritius, Seychelles, Namibia, South Africa and Morocco, reportedly boast the best quality of physical infrastructure in the continent. On the other end, Libya, Angola and Guinea are reportedly reflecting poorly in infrastructure. The lacking in infrastructural development is a problem that surpasses geographical boundaries and impacts the continent as a whole.

Although Africa’s infrastructure outpaced Asia in power generation capacity and landline telephone density in the 1990s, investment into infrastructure is said to have stagnated over the last 10 years, according to the report.

Egypt has taken on extensive infrastructural reforms, the government’s enactment of key reforms and a renewed focus on infrastructure, aligned with the country’s favourable demographic profile appealed to companies involved in real estate, hospitality and construction (RHC).

Retail

Retail is a fast growing sector in the continent, experiencing exceedingly impressive growth rates, and contributing to the income distribution expanding Africa.

With every country there are differences in consumer-consumption environments; industry leaders must understand their target countries, in their growth rates, total population, urbanisation growth and their consumer power, in a highly fragmented sector.

When taking into consideration the consumer behaviour favourable to retail investing, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and the DRC have the most favourable consumption spending growth, however mainly stemming from their large population rates.